Describe a family member.
My dad was in the army
Twenty nine years and more
From thirty eight to sixty eight
He’d joined before the war.
He spent the war in Burma
Fourteenth Army there
Then there was Malaya
A skirmish over there.
A couple of spells in Germany
He had us kids by now
And three years out in Cyprus
When they had troubles there.
He liked to keep strict discipline
‘Why?’, ‘Because I say.’
The punishment for being too slow;
A clip around the ear.
He didn’t used to talk a lot
My mum made up for that.
He never talked about the war.
Said ‘soldiers don’t look back’.
He always had a special chair
A pipe or cigarette.
He smoked a lot, he always had
We thought he’d never stop.
Heart problems didn’t stop him
He simply didn’t stop
But when they said he’d lose a leg
He stopped it overnight.
Sadly with the damage done
Quitting wasn’t enough
Though he lived a decent age
He suffered from a stroke.
Because he didn’t say a lot
We never got that close
He’d quickly hand the telephone
Over to my mum.
But now I’m getting older
I see myself in him
I am equally taciturn
Perhaps it comes from him.
I’m not strong on discipline
I struggle to be stern
But his Scots dad was very strict
I think it came from him.
My dad’s great strength was loyalty
He always stuck by us.
We sometimes don’t appreciate
Our parents till they’re gone.
Andrew Green's Poems 